I was thinking about running a worm encounter on the way to greyhawk before HoHR. Basically on the 2nd or third night before the PC's get to greyhawk they decide to sleep in a town instead a field for a change (town might be High ery, or some village I make up). They walk into the towns only inn and find the place is full of worm infested wights. I think something like this would help focus my PC's on how serious of a threat the age of worms is, and it would help foreshadow the champions belt.
What do you guys think? A bit over the top? Alternative ideas?
Perhaps a little over the top. They're on the way to the Free City, so they are hooked enough to investigate the matter. I can certainly understand wanting to let the PCs know that the worms are not localized, but there are subtle ways. Think of good horror movies, the scariest moments are often the little things.
1. Elsewhere on these boards someone created a little nursery rhyme (worms crawl in, worms crawl out...); I had some kids in the Free City singing this sucker while playing and it really creeped the players out... especially when things hit the fan in the Arena and they heard it off in the distance somewhere (one guy shivered!)
2. Have a bait vender mention he's been seeing unusual green worms a lot all of the sudden, and that fisherman have been complaining about catching fish that are already dead. Later a fishmonger mentions that some fish he was selling burst open with an ifestation of worms (works best if the PCs are having seafood at the inn at the time).
3. As the PCs pass a fruit merchant, they spot a green worm wiggling out of an apple. The merchant throws his hands in the air and cries "not again!" as he discards the crate. Several street urchins grab the apples and flee.
4. After a rain, have the locals note that there were a lot more worms than normal on the ground. Perhaps a crow swoops down and snatches one... later they see lot of dead crows littering the ground. Since Redhand has so many crows this may tie in nicely.
In my game the Apostle completed the ritual and the audience were turned to wights. When the PCs managed to get out of the arena the first thing they saw was the Rain Barrel Man screaming about the end... thena crow landed on his shoulder, deposited a green worm and flew away. You can guess the rest.
Not all of these are Kyuss worms even, if the Age of Worms is nigh, I would imagine the population of regular worms is on the rise too. All the more creepy to me.
Perhaps a little over the top. They're on the way to the Free City, so they are hooked enough to investigate the matter. I can certainly understand wanting to let the PCs know that the worms are not localized, but there are subtle ways. Think of good horror movies, the scariest moments are often the little things.
1. Elsewhere on these boards someone created a little nursery rhyme (worms crawl in, worms crawl out...); I had some kids in the Free City singing this sucker while playing and it really creeped the players out... especially when things hit the fan in the Arena and they heard it off in the distance somewhere (one guy shivered!)
2. Have a bait vender mention he's been seeing unusual green worms a lot all of the sudden, and that fisherman have been complaining about catching fish that are already dead. Later a fishmonger mentions that some fish he was selling burst open with an ifestation of worms (works best if the PCs are having seafood at the inn at the time).
3. As the PCs pass a fruit merchant, they spot a green worm wiggling out of an apple. The merchant throws his hands in the air and cries "not again!" as he discards the crate. Several street urchins grab the apples and flee.
4. After a rain, have the locals note that there were a lot more worms than normal on the ground. Perhaps a crow swoops down and snatches one... later they see lot of dead crows littering the ground. Since Redhand has so many crows this may tie in nicely.
In my game the Apostle completed the ritual and the audience were turned to wights. When the PCs managed to get out of the arena the first thing they saw was the Rain Barrel Man screaming about the end... thena crow landed on his shoulder, deposited a green worm and flew away. You can guess the rest.Not all of these are Kyuss worms even, if the Age of Worms is nigh, I would imagine the population of regular worms is on the rise too. All the more creepy to me.
I'm quitting the game I'm running and coming to play in yours. Where do you live? ;)
I wish I'd thought of that.
--Erik
Wow, praise from the Man himself! Thanks! Feel free to use it in the hardcover!
Perhaps a little over the top. They're on the way to the Free City, so they are hooked enough to investigate the matter. I can certainly understand wanting to let the PCs know that the worms are not localized, but there are subtle ways. Think of good horror movies, the scariest moments are often the little things.
1. Elsewhere on these boards someone created a little nursery rhyme (worms crawl in, worms crawl out...); I had some kids in the Free City singing this sucker while playing and it really creeped the players out... especially when things hit the fan in the Arena and they heard it off in the distance somewhere (one guy shivered!)
2. Have a bait vender mention he's been seeing unusual green worms a lot all of the sudden, and that fisherman have been complaining about catching fish that are already dead. Later a fishmonger mentions that some fish he was selling burst open with an ifestation of worms (works best if the PCs are having seafood at the inn at the time).
3. As the PCs pass a fruit merchant, they spot a green worm wiggling out of an apple. The merchant throws his hands in the air and cries "not again!" as he discards the crate. Several street urchins grab the apples and flee.
4. After a rain, have the locals note that there were a lot more worms than normal on the ground. Perhaps a crow swoops down and snatches one... later they see lot of dead crows littering the ground. Since Redhand has so many crows this may tie in nicely.
In my game the Apostle completed the ritual and the audience were turned to wights. When the PCs managed to get out of the arena the first thing they saw was the Rain Barrel Man screaming about the end... thena crow landed on his shoulder, deposited a green worm and flew away. You can guess the rest.Not all of these are Kyuss worms even, if the Age of Worms is nigh, I would imagine the population of regular worms is on the rise too. All the more creepy to me.
My characters are in exactly the same spot. These are great ideas! Thanks for the post, and consider them stolen....
I still thinks its time for them to fight some kyuss spawn, the guard in the keep wasn't enough, simply because the keep was a fortress it is almost expected that the pcs will meet trouble there. I want the PC's to know that these worms are going to start troubling whole cities, so I guess a farmhouse/hamlet might be better than a town for now (kind of what I was thinking anyway). Plus I will definetely drop in a lot more hints (well done!). I also saw somewhere on this board where someone said they had part of Old City quarantined because of some mysterious plague, that could have some really neat roleplaying oppurtunities.
By the way, I love this AP. It has gotten to the point that I don't even read the other adventures in dungeon anymore. This AP thing can really take off....
umm....yoink!
I still thinks its time for them to fight some kyuss spawn, the guard in the keep wasn't enough, simply because the keep was a fortress it is almost expected that the pcs will meet trouble there. I want the PC's to know that these worms are going to start troubling whole cities, so I guess a farmhouse/hamlet might be better than a town for now (kind of what I was thinking anyway).
Fair enough. Any of the worm-sightings I mentioned could be adapted as the catalyst for a spawn fight. For example after the fruit vendor tosses his apples, the PCs chase after the kids who snatched them... by the time they catch up they have to fight pint-sized spawn of Kyuss (the fact that they were innocent urchins will likely fuel the groups disdain for Kyuss and his followers).
Or it could be back story for the infested farmstead/village scenario. The PCs roll in, find the place deserted but with signs of the undead (half-gnawed arms and the like), they face a few spawn, and slowly realize the whole community is wiped out... except the one survivor locked in his cellar. They ahve to fight their way through a whole bunch of spawn to get to him. With a wild look in his eye he describes how his cousin found some odd green worms and went fishing, later (after he and his family enjoyed some trout) he became a zombie. Then the survivor descibes how one by one the other families became spawn until only he was left. The whole thing may have only taken a few hours. This will impress upon the group how dangerous these undead truely are.
This went AWESOME.
They were robbed by a gnome and a human while they were sleeping on night one out of diamond lake. The gnome cast sleep on the lone character staying up during his watch, and they stole a couple bags. By the next night the barbarian tracked them to this hamlet (i called it Shuffletown, right next to "the forks").
Basically the theives ran here, one of them was killed by wights in the town and the other ran and locked himself in a hole.
The party was freaked when they found that all the inhabitants of the hamlet were wights AND then they found a gnome locked up in a cellar.... with there stuff. The Barbarian beat on him for a while. I also did the locked up girl in another cellar thing who explained the "odd green worms" in a fish did this. She then said that she hates fish, shes a vegetarian (the PC's guessed thats why shes alive...).
All in all a wicked little side trek.
This went AWESOME.
Glad to hear it worked out!